Continued

OK, so even though the wireless here is really lousy I got some pictures to work, so the earlier stuff is where we were for the previous posts. So... If my memory keeps up, let's see...

So we went out to Lunch with Sarah at... Hmm, the name escapes me, but it was some sort of Philly food place (Pizza and cheesesteaks), so we had some awesome pizza! Then we headed down to Naples to visit with Patti and Jerry. I think that trip went pretty much as planned, maybe missed one turn for a second. Managed to get our way in past the guard and find their place, but misunderstood part of the directions and was looking for another garage. But Evan, Jerry's daughter Leigh and her husband Johnny were out there pointing because Evan had recognized Shadow. Evan's getting to be such a skater guy (not a abad thing) we didn't even recognize him when we drove past! So we yakked for a bit, and Leigh and Johnny made us a great dinner of steak and pototoes and such! (there was some great seafood as well I'm sure, but I'm not much for the seafood) (:
Then let it never be said that Jerry lets you stay at his place for free. He just chooses unusual ways to make you pay for it. We played Blackjack. Everyone against Jerry (the house) so we all paid him. Though it was a pretty good deal. It only cost us $2.50. I'm not sure the others were quite that lucky. I just paid attention and realized that it was "real" gambling in that everyone just kept losing money so I kept my bets small so as to lose less. (:
So then we had to head off to bed so we could get up early yesterday for our trip down to Key west and back to Miami. We got up around 5 and out the door a little after 6. Messed up one turn so we headed East to Miami instead of SE towards the tip of Florida, but for all I know it's just as fast that way anyway. I wondered what was down there when looking at the map when it appeared that there was nothing down there. Sure enough it seems to be the Everglades. There's about a 60 mile stretch where it's just highway. Maybe 2 or 3 stopping areas with no services. It largely seems like the bottom of Florida is a swamp. It was also nice since it was all covered in fog and we couldn't really see where we were going, but by the time we got to Miami the fog was burning off. So then we headed down to the keys.
Well... I can't say we were too impressed. There are a couple nice spots like I was picturing where you're actually up on a bridge looking out over the ocean. But most of it seems to be just trees along the road and/or just swampy areas. A lot of the populated areas aren't too upscale looking. Key West in particular seems to be a rather downscale college-kid looking place. Not all of it, but certainly a large portion. Kind of like some of the pictures of New Orleans I've seen. (chickens running around and such.) and way too many people on Key west. The rest of the keys weren't too bad. And it was getting WAY too hot down there. Agh, we are not 86 degree weather people. And there's not much of any beaches to speak of.
We tried to stop at a couple beaches at state parks, but they said Shadow was only allowed in the parking lot. We did stop at Anne's Beach which is closer to the East end of the keys, but it's not a normal beach. It's not sand, it's more like white clay. And seaweed all over. and it didn't look like it got beyond a couple feet deep until you got about a 1/4 mile out to sea. But we did trudge out a ways and take Shadow with us. She's not too sure about that. She would swim with us when she had to and we asked her, but given the choice she always headed back for shore. but it was nice to see her swim for once. So then we headed back up to our Hotel in Miami (OK, Cutler Ridge, but more or less Miami). Sara really wanted to get out and do more, but it was rather hard to find much that we could do with Shadow and it was way too hot to leave her in the car for more than a few minutes.
So we made it back up here, got checked in at the Baymont (this is a definite nice place to stay) and tried to find a place to eat. We made it to an Ihop without getting lost and Sara got to eat at another place she hadn't been. Of course we were almost the only ones in there at about 8PM on New Years Eve. But it was nice. And they were setting off fireworks somewhere in the city. Though these proved to be startling to Sara while she was trying to sleep.
So, I think we're about up to now. We're on our way out to a beach on Rickenbacker causeway here in Miami. Hopefully this one will be a bit better. Then on up to Orlando.

I'm not sure how these pictures will post so If I can't label them in place easily I'll just tell you that they should be pictures from Key west of the Southernmost "stuff" and maybe a couple from Anne's beach.